CAVE Academy Wiki

New Starters

Welcome to CAVE Academy. If you are a new team member or student, you are in the right place. Working through these docs will help you get up and running with our Courses, Dailies programme, Masterclasses, setting up your working environment, and submitting your work for review.

• CAVE Courses
  This set of docs will go through how to sign up to our courses, and what to expect when enrolled on a course.
• CAVE Dailies
  This set of docs will go through how our Dailies programme works.
• CAVE Webinars
  This doc will go through the steps to sign up to our FREE online Webinars, held in collaboration with the VES.
• CAVE Wiki
  A bit of information about the CAVE Wiki from what it is to what we hope it will become.
• Shotgun at CAVE
  Here you will find a set of docs to take you through the steps to setup your Shotgun account and tools, and also how to publish work and submit to dailies.

CAVE Pathways

If you are looking to progress from A to Z, our learning Pathways offer an inter-connected system of learning. Whether it's Modelling or Lighting, or any other department within VFX, Animation and Games, these Pathways will complete your learning journey.

• Modelling Pathway
  Using a practical, hands-on approach to learning, our Modelling Pathway will allow you to develop a strong skillset and mindset to handle any modelling task in production.

CAVE Projects

Welcome to the CAVE Projects homepage! We aim to run these projects with an industry-style, production-orientated approach. If you'd like to be a part of any of the projects, please get in touch.

• FPT
  Welcome to the Forbidden Planet project. Here you will find documentation on assets, sequences and shots for the show.
• OWT
  Welcome to the One Way Ticket project. Here you will find documentation on assets, sequences and shots for the show.
• TCP
  Welcome to The Connection Programme project. Here you will find documentation on assets, sequences and shots for the show, along with breakdowns on the development of the project.
• TOTRS
  Welcome to the Tales of the Rising Sun project. Here you will find documentation on assets, episodes, sequences and shots for the show.
• CAVE
  Our project for all standalone courses, programmes and RND.

General

Documentation on project file structures, naming conventions, and general training bits and bobs.

• Becoming a Better Artist
  This series of docs will explore thoughts, ideas and creative solutions on how to become a better artist.
• Published File Naming Conventions
  This doc will run through the naming conventions to adhere to when naming published files for all stages of the pipeline.
• Department Naming Conventions
  Here you will find our shorthand naming conventions for departments.
• CG Terminology
  Useful terminology and links related to CG Animation, VFX and Games
• Recording Video and Audio for Tutorials
  Information on the hardware and software we recommend for capturing and editing video and audio at CAVE, and some useful docs on capturing content and editing.

Onset

Documentation on capturing and processing onset data, shooting plates and managing shoots.

• Data Acquisition
  Documentation on capturing onset data, including panoramas, HDRIs, textures and photogrammetry.
• Mocap
  Documentation on capturing motion performance.
• Data Processing
  Information on processing onset data to create usable HDRIs, panoramas, etc.

Post-Production: Assets

• Assets – General
  This set of docs will cover the general information on how we create assets, including how we handle LODs, naming conventions, asset hierarchies, and more.
• Modelling
  All things model and sculpt related, including UVs.
• Surfacing
  Documentation on how we approach Texture, Look Development and Groom related tasks.
• Rigging
  Documentation on creating animation and mocap rigs.

Post-Production: Shots

• Animation
  Information on animation and all things motion related.
• Lighting
  How we tackle lighting for VFX, CG and games based projects.

Pipeline

Documentation on the CAVE VFX, CG Animation and Games pipelines.

• VFX Pipeline
  The documentation here will cover how we push VFX projects through the pipeline.
• Feature Animation Pipeline
  The documentation here will cover how we push full CG Animation projects through the pipeline.

Production

Documentation on project management, scheduling and tracking.

• Production Statuses
  In this document, we'll look at how an element will flow through the pipeline and the statuses we'll attach onto the element.
• Asset Bidding
  In this document, we'll cover the asset bidding process and the CAVE Asset Bidding Template.

Reference

Here you will find stills and video reference of all things animal, natural, manmade and more, captured by the CAVE Academy team.

• Animal
  This section covers animal reference for vertebrates and invertebrates.

Software

Documentation and training on software such as Maya, ZBrush, Mari, Substance Painter, and so on.

• Introduction to Maya Course
  This course will introduce you to Autodesk Maya.
• Introduction to Houdini Course
  This course, originally from the Introduction to CG Tools and Techniques course (recorded back in 2020), will introduce you to SideFX Houdini.

RND

Documentation on tools and workflows in development or testing.

• CAVE Tools Development
  A list of tools in planning or development.

Support

Documentation on the support we offer to Academic Institutes and Studios.

• CAVE Academic Partnerships
  This document will run your through our Academic Partnership plan.
• CAVE Studio Learning and Development Support
  This document will cover our Learning and Development support services for studios.
• Work Seeking Support
  Here you will find documentation on CV, cover letter and demoreel support.